Woman fired as Dartmouth's Native American program director amidst 'Rachel Dolezal' like controversy
Susan Taffe Reed will no longer be serving as the director of Dartmouth's Native American Program, the school announced on Thursday.
Susan Taffe Reed will no longer be serving as the director of Dartmouth’s Native American Program, the school announced on Thursday.
The program supports 91 students who are Native American, and while there is no requirement to hire a director who is Native American, students and alumni have complained that the hiring process was not transparent, and the school has decided that the controversy and distraction of the controversy have prevented Taffe Reed from doing her job.
Taffe Reed claims to have ties to the Eastern Delaware Nations in Pennsylvania, which is a nonprofit run by her family but is not a federally recognized tribe. Although the school claimed that Taffe Reed had ties to the Delaware community, the Delaware Council in Oklahoma disputed those claims, and Native American advocates largely criticized the school for those claims.
The school will be appointing an interim director, though it has not yet named its choice, and will begin its search for a new director on a more permanent basis.
